Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests

Background: Children who experience multiple adversities, such as prenatal exposure to drugs and poverty, early in development are at increased risk for the early initiation of alcohol and cigarette use. However, studies that examine potentially malleable processes associated with substance use init...

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Published in:Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Main Authors: Mason, W. Alex, Patwardhan, Irina, Smith, Gail L., Chmelka, Mary B., Savolainen, Jukka, January, Stacy-Ann A., Miettunen, Jouko, Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Digital Commons @ University of South Florida 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/229
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045
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spelling ftunisfloridatam:oai:digitalcommons.usf.edu:esf_facpub-1252 2023-05-15T17:42:41+02:00 Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests Mason, W. Alex Patwardhan, Irina Smith, Gail L. Chmelka, Mary B. Savolainen, Jukka January, Stacy-Ann A. Miettunen, Jouko Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta 2017-01-01T08:00:00Z https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/229 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045 unknown Digital Commons @ University of South Florida https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/229 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045 Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications Substance initiation Cumulative risk Peer Temperament article 2017 ftunisfloridatam https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045 2022-09-15T17:53:29Z Background: Children who experience multiple adversities, such as prenatal exposure to drugs and poverty, early in development are at increased risk for the early initiation of alcohol and cigarette use. However, studies that examine potentially malleable processes associated with substance use initiation in the context of exposure to cumulative stressors are scant. This study examined associations between cumulative contextual risk at birth and initiation of alcohol and cigarette use in adolescence, testing childhood peer marginalization and peer aggression and behavior problems as mediating mechanisms. Analyses further adjusted for fearfulness/inhibition and hyperactivity/distractibility to determine if the hypothesized mediating mechanisms were significant after accounting for temperamental characteristics associated with substance initiation. Methods: Participants were 6190 adolescents from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 Study. Data were collected on cumulative contextual risk (parent reports), substance initiation (adolescent reports), childhood peer processes and behavior problems (teacher reports), and temperamental characteristics (teacher reports). Novel discrete-time survival mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized mediating mechanisms. Results: Initial analyses showed that the associations between cumulative contextual risk and both alcohol and cigarette initiation were mediated by childhood peer processes and behavior problems; however, the indirect effects became statistically non-significant after adding the temperament variables, which themselves predicted substance initiation. Conclusions: Targeting peer processes may not be an effective way to interrupt pathways leading from early contextual risk to substance initiation. Instead, early screening and intervention efforts to delay substance initiation may need to be tailored to the individual temperamental characteristics of targeted participants. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Finland Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF) Drug and Alcohol Dependence 177 291 298
institution Open Polar
collection Digital Commons University of South Florida (USF)
op_collection_id ftunisfloridatam
language unknown
topic Substance initiation
Cumulative risk
Peer
Temperament
spellingShingle Substance initiation
Cumulative risk
Peer
Temperament
Mason, W. Alex
Patwardhan, Irina
Smith, Gail L.
Chmelka, Mary B.
Savolainen, Jukka
January, Stacy-Ann A.
Miettunen, Jouko
Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta
Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
topic_facet Substance initiation
Cumulative risk
Peer
Temperament
description Background: Children who experience multiple adversities, such as prenatal exposure to drugs and poverty, early in development are at increased risk for the early initiation of alcohol and cigarette use. However, studies that examine potentially malleable processes associated with substance use initiation in the context of exposure to cumulative stressors are scant. This study examined associations between cumulative contextual risk at birth and initiation of alcohol and cigarette use in adolescence, testing childhood peer marginalization and peer aggression and behavior problems as mediating mechanisms. Analyses further adjusted for fearfulness/inhibition and hyperactivity/distractibility to determine if the hypothesized mediating mechanisms were significant after accounting for temperamental characteristics associated with substance initiation. Methods: Participants were 6190 adolescents from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 Study. Data were collected on cumulative contextual risk (parent reports), substance initiation (adolescent reports), childhood peer processes and behavior problems (teacher reports), and temperamental characteristics (teacher reports). Novel discrete-time survival mediation analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized mediating mechanisms. Results: Initial analyses showed that the associations between cumulative contextual risk and both alcohol and cigarette initiation were mediated by childhood peer processes and behavior problems; however, the indirect effects became statistically non-significant after adding the temperament variables, which themselves predicted substance initiation. Conclusions: Targeting peer processes may not be an effective way to interrupt pathways leading from early contextual risk to substance initiation. Instead, early screening and intervention efforts to delay substance initiation may need to be tailored to the individual temperamental characteristics of targeted participants.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Mason, W. Alex
Patwardhan, Irina
Smith, Gail L.
Chmelka, Mary B.
Savolainen, Jukka
January, Stacy-Ann A.
Miettunen, Jouko
Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta
author_facet Mason, W. Alex
Patwardhan, Irina
Smith, Gail L.
Chmelka, Mary B.
Savolainen, Jukka
January, Stacy-Ann A.
Miettunen, Jouko
Järvelin, Marjo-Riitta
author_sort Mason, W. Alex
title Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
title_short Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
title_full Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
title_fullStr Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
title_full_unstemmed Cumulative Contextual Risk at Birth and Adolescent Substance Initiation: Peer Mediation Tests
title_sort cumulative contextual risk at birth and adolescent substance initiation: peer mediation tests
publisher Digital Commons @ University of South Florida
publishDate 2017
url https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/229
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045
genre Northern Finland
genre_facet Northern Finland
op_source Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications
op_relation https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/esf_facpub/229
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.03.045
container_title Drug and Alcohol Dependence
container_volume 177
container_start_page 291
op_container_end_page 298
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